I don’t quite understand how this re-post is relevant with all it’s ellipses?
Are you blaming the projectionist for it’s bad decor?
When I was a teen, I worked as a box office person in a theater in California and during the last show if there was only one or two people the manager would pressure me to lie to the ticketbuyers and say something was broken so he and the projectionist could go home early. I couldn’t bring myself to do it and would make him tell his own lies. Oh yeah, this was a non-union house…so I guess the desire to go home after a long day is human nature, not a union disease.
Anthology Film Archives, on the otherhand, will show a film at the loss of staff wages if only one person shows up. As a projectionist or manager, I admit you do sort of resent that one person who desperately needs to see an unsubtitled russian film at 10pm, but it’s a good policy nonetheless.
I had heard the new IFC theater edits it’s films for more convenient running times and tells patrons they can watch the full version on their televisions. Does anyone know if that is true?
Hi. I’m a member of that dreaded Local 306 you’re all talking about. I certainly don’t want to extend some of the more ridiculous parts of this union debate, but I did want to correct a few points of misinformation. These unquestioned perceptions of what it means to be in the union, unfortunately lead to a decline in support for an organization that IS SUPPOSED to protect skilled workers from being fired will-nilly. Unions are not set up out of greed, but if you want to believe that, whatever I say will not convince you otherwise.
A few things:
1) Wish that it were true that just by joining the union, the place is then unionized. Local 306 needs a contract with the IFC so it is not right to assume their scab projectionists do not want to join. There is simply no point in it until IFC meets with 306.
2)This last post by RobertR is misleading because the Union gets dues paid by the worker based on the wages earned at a place. There is not a certain amount a theater pays to the union directly, but it is based on whether a union person has worked there. No Payoffs. What is true here, is that just because the union has a contract with a place does not mean you are seeing a union projectionist at work. The megaplexes have chipped away at the union so much that they are usually required to have only one union person there full-time. This person is usually busy building up and breaking down prints for the platters and the actual projecting is done by very low paid managers. Hence most of the crappy projecting you see is done by a high school kid.
3)On this same note, I will not defend every union projectionist there is. I know some are better than others. I think more to blame is the automation of the theaters which has to do with saving money for the theaters. You’re not going to get perfect projections when one guy is running 12 rooms. Platters are also terrible on film prints; I prefer the old fashioned reel-to-reel method…but of course I work in archival booths where it is required. But how many times have you witnessed this?…the film comes up out of of focus or out of frame and astoundingly it plays through the trailers for like 15 minutes and no one does anything—I guarantee you this is a manager not a union person. There is no usher in the room checking it’s startup. So you get up to complain and find a young usher or manager he looks at you like you are the biggest pain in the ass for bothering him and besides he doesn’t even know what “out of frame” means so he thinks you’re crazy. etc. Obviously the owners of the theater have not trained their staff on what to look for to make sure a film is properly projected and pretty soon audiences just come to expect mediocre projection as par for the course. But conveniently, there’s always the union to blame.
4)The irony of this IFC thing is that the projectionist there actually makes a wage similar to what the union would ask for and he has benefits. Cablevision would not be hurt by talking to us but they simply want to keep the union from getting in and being able to protect that worker—kind of like WalMart. Also ironic is that a few of you went on and on about how bad union projectionist are but didn’t acknowledge the post where this same non-union projectionist was unable to run “Don’t Look Back”.
By the way, how does one appreciate Bob Dylan’s work and yet be anti-union? It baffles me…
I don’t quite understand how this re-post is relevant with all it’s ellipses?
Are you blaming the projectionist for it’s bad decor?
When I was a teen, I worked as a box office person in a theater in California and during the last show if there was only one or two people the manager would pressure me to lie to the ticketbuyers and say something was broken so he and the projectionist could go home early. I couldn’t bring myself to do it and would make him tell his own lies. Oh yeah, this was a non-union house…so I guess the desire to go home after a long day is human nature, not a union disease.
Anthology Film Archives, on the otherhand, will show a film at the loss of staff wages if only one person shows up. As a projectionist or manager, I admit you do sort of resent that one person who desperately needs to see an unsubtitled russian film at 10pm, but it’s a good policy nonetheless.
Not propoganda, it was a question…sounded strange to me too.
I had heard the new IFC theater edits it’s films for more convenient running times and tells patrons they can watch the full version on their televisions. Does anyone know if that is true?
Hi. I’m a member of that dreaded Local 306 you’re all talking about. I certainly don’t want to extend some of the more ridiculous parts of this union debate, but I did want to correct a few points of misinformation. These unquestioned perceptions of what it means to be in the union, unfortunately lead to a decline in support for an organization that IS SUPPOSED to protect skilled workers from being fired will-nilly. Unions are not set up out of greed, but if you want to believe that, whatever I say will not convince you otherwise.
A few things:
1) Wish that it were true that just by joining the union, the place is then unionized. Local 306 needs a contract with the IFC so it is not right to assume their scab projectionists do not want to join. There is simply no point in it until IFC meets with 306.
2)This last post by RobertR is misleading because the Union gets dues paid by the worker based on the wages earned at a place. There is not a certain amount a theater pays to the union directly, but it is based on whether a union person has worked there. No Payoffs. What is true here, is that just because the union has a contract with a place does not mean you are seeing a union projectionist at work. The megaplexes have chipped away at the union so much that they are usually required to have only one union person there full-time. This person is usually busy building up and breaking down prints for the platters and the actual projecting is done by very low paid managers. Hence most of the crappy projecting you see is done by a high school kid.
3)On this same note, I will not defend every union projectionist there is. I know some are better than others. I think more to blame is the automation of the theaters which has to do with saving money for the theaters. You’re not going to get perfect projections when one guy is running 12 rooms. Platters are also terrible on film prints; I prefer the old fashioned reel-to-reel method…but of course I work in archival booths where it is required. But how many times have you witnessed this?…the film comes up out of of focus or out of frame and astoundingly it plays through the trailers for like 15 minutes and no one does anything—I guarantee you this is a manager not a union person. There is no usher in the room checking it’s startup. So you get up to complain and find a young usher or manager he looks at you like you are the biggest pain in the ass for bothering him and besides he doesn’t even know what “out of frame” means so he thinks you’re crazy. etc. Obviously the owners of the theater have not trained their staff on what to look for to make sure a film is properly projected and pretty soon audiences just come to expect mediocre projection as par for the course. But conveniently, there’s always the union to blame.
4)The irony of this IFC thing is that the projectionist there actually makes a wage similar to what the union would ask for and he has benefits. Cablevision would not be hurt by talking to us but they simply want to keep the union from getting in and being able to protect that worker—kind of like WalMart. Also ironic is that a few of you went on and on about how bad union projectionist are but didn’t acknowledge the post where this same non-union projectionist was unable to run “Don’t Look Back”.
By the way, how does one appreciate Bob Dylan’s work and yet be anti-union? It baffles me…